Chennai Super Kings: Still in the hunt!

Two games have passed since I last published the scenarios. Though both these games don’t have a direct impact on the qualification of the Super Kings, they do decide what should happen in the next matches for us to qualify.

One match went in a way we wanted, the Sixers have won and qualified for the semis. The other went in a way no one expected. A rain hit abandoned match to no one’s good. So, how well this could go now? The point table as of now is

Teams	Mat	Won	Lost	N/R	Pts	Net RR
Syd Sixers	3	3	0	0	12	+2.131
Lions	3	2	1	0	8	+0.054
Mum Indians	2	0	1	1	2	-0.539
Yorkshire	2	0	1	1	2	-6.294
Super Kings	2	0	2	0	0	-0.484

The Super Kings are at the bottom of the table. But still with a bright chance of qualifying considering that none of the teams other than the Sixers and Lions have won a game.

The future fixtures are very important. Here is what we want.

Date	Game	Winner	Reason
Oct 20	Lions vs Yorks	Yorks	If Lions win, that will seal Group B
Oct 20	CSK vs Mumbai	CSK	This is a knock-out if Yorks win against the Lions
Oct 22	CSK vs Yorks	CSK	This one and we are through
Oct 22	Sixers vs Mumbai	Sixers	So that CSK stays in comfort zone

The games on October 20 are the most crucial. If Lions beat Yorks in the first game, then they will go through to the semi-finals eliminating all the other 3 teams. So, not just Chennai, Mumbai Indians will also hope that Lions loses the game. And for Yorks, it’s a do or die encounter. But considering the performance so far, this result is highly unlikely and will be a miracle happening.

If we get a favourable result in the first game, then the second game is knock-out. The losing team have to get their way out. So, one IPL team will be out of action tomorrow. The remaining two matches are just stories. CSK beat Yorks and goes through.

The final points table will look like this

Teams	Mat	Won	Lost	N/R	Pts	Net RR
Syd Sixers	4	4	0	0	16	??
Lions	4	2	2	0	8	??
Mum Indians	4	0	3	1	2	??
Yorkshire	4	1	1	2	6	??
Super Kings	4	2	2	0	8	??

The task is not so easy, but with the luck that we always had, this will surely bound to happen.

Whistles!

AFCAT: Air Force apologizes (finally)!

It had been a fortnight since the Air Force declared its AFCAT 02/2012 result null and void. Today (finally) they apologized to the candidates through mail.

A mail has been sent to the candidates (not sure if it was sent only to those whom they have declared as passed early) today morning (18/10/2012 11:09 AM) which contained the following message.

Though it had been more than 15 months, there was no sign of results being declared anytime soon. They keep the candidates on hold for a very long time.

Can the Chennai Super Kings still make it?

After entering the tournament as one of the title favourites, Chennai Super Kings suffered back to back losses only to find themselves limping for the spot in the semi-finals. With the two losses, Chennai are almost out of the race. But can they bounce back? Is there a way to get their journey back on track? There is still a statistical probability of Chennai Super Kings winning the CLT20 cup.

The scenario is that either one of the top two teams, Sydney Sixers or the Highveld Lions must lose both their games and Chennai Super Kings winning both their remaining games with considerable margin. Since the NRR of Sixers are way too high, Chennai would be hoping for the Lions to lose both their games, as that would give them a better NRR competition.

The points table after the Chennai vs Lions game looks like this

Teams	Mat	Won	Lost	Pts	Net RR
Syd Sixers	2	2	0	8	+3.140
Lions	2	2	0	8	+0.395
Super Kings	2	0	2	0	-0.484
Mum Indians	1	0	1	0	-0.539
Yorkshire	1	0	1	0	-6.294

Here are the remaining games and what Chennai would be best hoping for

Date	Game	Winner	Reason
Oct 18	Lions vs Sixers	Sixers	As Lions should lose both their games
Oct 18	Mumbai vs Yorks	Mumbai	Yorks have another match to win. So let them lose this one
Oct 20	Lions vs Yorks	Yorks	Lions have to lose
Oct 20	CSK vs Mumbai	CSK	Obviously!
Oct 22	CSK vs Yorks	CSK	Again, obviously!
Oct 22	Sixers vs Mumbai	Sixers	So that CSK stays in comfort zone

So, after all these games the points table will look like

Teams	Mat	Won	Lost	Pts	Net RR
Syd Sixers	4	4	0	16	??
Lions	4	2	2	8	??
Super Kings	2	2	2	8	??
Mum Indians	4	1	3	4	??
Yorkshire	4	1	3	4	??

Now, there will be a tie in points between the Lions and the Super Kings and with a better NRR (hopefully) CSK will go through.

The allowance we have here is that, even if Mumbai / Yorks win 2 games, it will still depend upon the Net run rate. So, the going should be easy. But if both Sixers and Lions win their next game, then its all over and all the three remaining teams will be eliminated.

Super Kings have faced this situation in the past and hopefully history repeats itself.

Whistlepodu forever!!

Windows 8 - Is this just a geeky stuff?

We are just days away from the birth of this new baby - Windows 8. This will create a new era in desktops as the World's premier Operating System will switch from its conventional view to favour touch inpu as a primary one. But is this just for the Geeks? Well, it's difficult to answer.

First, the UI is pretty new for a normal customer. There is no doubt that Geeks will love it. But it will be hard task for microsoft to pull in the regular customers to the Windows 8. But there they have the twist. I've pushed some of my friends who are not fond of computers to use Windows 8 and surprising they do love it. Those who used Windows 8 Release Preview hesitate to switch back to Windows 7. So, Microsoft's bigger task is to make people use the OS atleast for a few days and let them know the expereience.

For me, its not a Geeky stuff at all. But world always thinks different from you. We will know the result in a few weeks time. Here are some screenshots from Win8 RP

Technorati : 8, Metro, OS, Release Preview, Technology, Windows 8

Del.icio.us : 8, Metro, OS, Release Preview, Technology, Windows 8

Zooomr : 8, Metro, OS, Release Preview, Technology, Windows 8

Flickr : 8, Metro, OS, Release Preview, Technology, Windows 8

Testing Zoundry Raven

Blogger's new interface is simply stupid. Especially if you are using a slow network connection. So it becomes mandatory to use a desktop application for Blogger. Just then Zoundry Raven comes to help.

This is just a Test Post to test the working of Raven.

Champions League T20 2012 - Chennai Super Kings Schedule

Champions League T20 is back! And the yellow brigade is back too. Here is the schedule for the most awaited team in the most awaited league..

Let the whistles fly high!

Windows 8 never Shuts Down, literally!

Have a look at this screenshot, captured with the snipping tool, in Windows 8 Release Preview.

The task manager shows that my system is up for 1 day and 23 hours and 41 minutes (thats 19 minutes short for the second day). But actually that isn't the case. I turned on my PC just minutes before this screenshot was taken and after a proper Shut Down (Charms -> Power -> Shutdown).

Want to try out on your own? Just press CTRL + Shift + Esc and go to Performance tab. You can also do some more. Keep your power supply on (in case if you use a PC) shut down your system and hit the spacebar twice or thrice. Your computer will turn on automatically. There is even more. Open Notepad. Type something. Shut down and turn on your computer. And you could find the notepad ready for you.

So why does it happen?

The answer is "Windows 8 never actually shuts down". Yes. Never indeed. In whatever way you try to shutdown your PC (even by executing shutdown.exe), the computer goes to a hibernate-kind of mode. This is not actually explicitly mentioned as a feature of Windows 8 by Microsoft. But they do have a name for this. They call this procedure "Fast Startup"

Fairly speaking, there is nothing to worry about this feature of Windows 8. It neither consumes any power nor does it change the aspects of computing. It just makes our lives pretty easy. But the question is why doesn't Microsoft publically announce this as a feature of Windows 8? Is there something unannounced hiding inside Windows 8? Well, answers will be on October 26.

AFCAT Results Cancelled

Looks like this is not the year for the Air Force aspirants. India's second largest defence service just made an announcement stating the results declared for the Air Force Common Entrance Test (AFCAT) 02/2012 are null and void. Technical difficulties is the reason stated by them for this failure.

A week before, the results of AFCAT are published and the shortlisted candidates are asked to select their AFSB and time slot by logging into their official career website careerairforce.nic.in. But hours later the login to the website was disable citing technical reasons.

A week later, a notification has been put up on the website stating that the results were cancelled and a fresh list of shortlisted candidates will be announced shortly. Seriously this looks more than just a technical difficulty. The list of candidates has been there for about a week before they could pull it off.

This frankly raises a lot of questions and Air Force must come up with a reply for the queries!

It seems that Arvind Kejriwal always wants to top the headlines. And the scam he exposed today was perfectly planned. Not the scam itself, but the way he exposed it. Besides letting the media know about the press conference on Friday evening, the team let the people directly know what's going to happen. A text message was sent to all those who have registered with the "India Against Corruption" movement later in the afternoon of Friday. The text message said

Arvind Kejriwal and Prashanth Bhushan are going to reveal the corruption of a most POWERFUL person at 5pm today. Watch it live at www.iaclive.com. Fwd

And then, the rest of the day was a top story! Looking at the speed at which the Congress responded, it looked like they have already smelled this coming their way. Every top leader was ready with their own responses for the scam. The only setback for the yet-to-be-announced political party is that, the amount of scam, estimated to be around Rs.300 crore, is pretty much low compared to the recent CWG, 2G and Coalgate scams.

However, media has got something to chew for the next few days..

Back to Blogger!

It was never an easy task to switch back and forth! It was a tough switch back to Blogger after a few fantastic months at WordPress. I had always been anti-Google, just because of the fact that i hate their monopoly. And always a little inclined towards to Microsoft, for Gates being my Childhood hero. So was that, I preferred Live mail to Gmail and WordPress to Blogger. But however Google has the final laugh in every case. Bing search was perfect, but it lacks the look and feel. Outlook has the best of the looks, but it lacks speed. In every single thing, Google offered me a complete package. It was hard to live without you, the big brother.

So, what's wrong with WordPress? Practically, nothing wrong. They have everything to perfection. But that is what the problem is. WP is not that easy for one who is well comfortable with the Google world. They take you to a world that you have never visited. Both for the authors and the users, they make the process a little complicated. So, here I'm back at Blogger.

Unlike my previous blogs, this one has no specific targets. Yes, it does talk about Cricket (such as my previous Cricket Tamil), Technology (as my WP) and a Weblog (like Evano Oruvan). But it is not limited to just that. It is a mixture of all this and more.

Hoping for a nice time back at Blogger!

Yours,
Kavin.